Trick or treat: Inside the business of Halloween

Haunted houses, costumes and candy: How do local Halloween-themed businesses get ready for the scary season and what do they do the rest of the year?

This Wednesday, Haunted Scarecrow is posed to frighten consumers at the Nob Hill haunted house

Press representative Nichole Harwoodsaid even if you went last year, expect to be “completely surprised.”

The haunted house is in its second year at a new location, the Historic Lobo Theater, 3013 Central NE.

“It’s a cool way to bring the haunt season and New Mexico culture together,” said Harwood.

This year Harwood said the haunted house is bringing back old favorites such as the swamp room. It's also making new rooms with a New Mexico twist.

“We’ve taken out every single theater seat,” said Harwood.

Thrill seekers may remember that Haunted Scarecrow closed down in 2015.

Harwood said that the original owner retired the event, but a group of individuals, including Harwood, decided to bring it back in 2023 under new management.

“A lot of experienced people reviving a really fun, amazing brand,” said Harwood.

Haunted houses, in Harwood's experience, tend to have an individual leader and haunted houses can close when a leader steps down.

Harwood worked with Dragon's House of Horrors, a local haunted house, until 2021. She left because of the owner died and the attraction closed.

“This isn't just one person spearheading it like in the past; this is a lot of people who have come together,” said Harwood.

That's why haunters, or actors, have a lot more control over the direction of Haunted Scarecrow, explained Harwood.

“It is a multiple people passion project,” said Harwood.

Customers can buy tickets for $20 and wander through the attraction from 7-11 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Everyone involved in the haunted house works a non-Halloween yearly job. Harwood does public relations for multiple companies. The Historic Lobo Theater typically plays films.

Quality costumes

The Lobo Theater is not the only theater offering a unique experience for Halloween. The Albuquerque Little Theatre is renting out its costumes.

ALT has an immense storage room with thousands of costume, some of which date back to the 1930s when the theatre was founded.

Rob Armstrong is the executive director of ALT. His background is in special effects costuming — think blood and guts.

He said his job was to “make the impossible hang off the human body."

He used to work at Musical Theatre Southwest, which had a “gigantic" costume warehouse.

“They made a lot of money just off of their Halloween rental business," Armstrong said.

Musical Theatre Southwest used that money to support paying the wage of full-time employees at the theatre, Armstrong said.

That was until the Musical Theatre Southwest costume warehouse caught fire and burned down in 2010.

“That left a gap,” said Armstrong.

ALT decided to fill that gap by starting a rental business. This is the first year the theatre is renting out its costumes for Halloween.

Customers looking to rent a costume need to make an appointment on the website, https://albuquerquelittletheatre.org/rentals/.

The theatre narrows down the costume offerings. The customer comes in and looks at the options, and when the choice is made, the costumer undergoes a fitting and the costume is tailored to their size.

The cost of renting a costume ranges from $50 to $200.

The theatre has a “vast library that would overwhelm anyone browsing,” said Armstrong.

Armstrong explained all the costumes available were handcrafted by someone who worked or volunteered their labor to the theatre in the over 95 years the theatre has been open.

“Tremendous amounts of handcrafting, which you cannot 3D print,” said Armstrong.

When customers rent costumes, they’ll probably end up speaking to Kim Love. She is in charge of facilities, the box office assistant and wardrobe mistress.

Love is a self-taught seamstress who cosplayed in college. She started the job at ALT six months ago but had previously volunteered for for ALT.

“I do a little bit of everything,” Love said.

Anne Schrader De May is familiar with renting costumes to theaters productions.

Schrader De May owned Costumes!, a costume shop in Santa Fe.

After the pandemic, she closed down the physical shop and the store went into “hibernation,” said Schrader De May.

All her costumes are in two large shipping containers right now while she is looking for a new store location.

She still rents out to theaters, predominantly high school productions, and some old customers who know what they want.

The old store was just her and a few independent or part-time artists.

“The less I intervene, the more creative the stuff to come,” said Schrader De May.

People, Schrader De May explained, are looking for unique costumes, ones that other people don’t have.

She offered exclusive and unique costumes to her clients. She would sit with customers and consult them on what they wanted.

Schrader De May said customer inspiration came from all over the place — a mask or hat, time period or movie.

The goal of her shop was to provide decent to high-quality costumes so that “people are not wearing all those very cheap material kinds of costumes to be thrown away."

She went to vocational school in Germany for fashion and design.

Schrader De May is originally from Germany. She met her husband, an American in Germany, and he convinced her to move to New Mexico.

Opening a costume shop in Santa Fe was “completely unplanned,” said Schrader De May.

She walked into a costume shop in Santa Fe one day and they told her everything was for sale because they were closing. That inspired her to open her own store and fill the void.

“A very fun choice I made to be creative,” said Schrader De May.

Halloween has always been a very busy season, said Schrader De May, and she still has people calling for her asking for costumes even though the shop is closed.

However, her busy season doesn't end after Halloween. Come Christmas, she also rents out Santa costumes. In fact, several of what would be considered a Halloween-style business model also benefit from Christmas.

Halloween to Christmas rush

Buffet's Candiesstarts getting busy in fall around Halloween. That momentum builds as the candy store approaches the Christmas season, said operations manager Tyler Buffet.

Buffet's is a family business, and Tyler Buffet has been running around the Buffets store ever since he was 8 years old.

For the Halloween season, Buffet's sells solid chocolate witches, caramel apples and a unique Halloween-only popcorn flavor monster mash.

The store also puts together witch hands, which is a snack in a glove. The fingernails are red sour cherry candies and the rest is filled with green popcorn.

“People want to buy cheap candy, so it is not a big season for us,” said Buffet.

He pointed to the candy being produced in the back of the shop. He said that new candy production at Buffets is already entirely focused on Christmas.